WASHINGTON — The watchdog for US spending in Afghanistan says lax accountability in a $1.1 billion program supplying fuel to the Afghan National Army needs ‘‘immediate attention’’ before control of the program is turned over to the Kabul government in less than four months.
There’s no proof the fuel is actually being used by Afghan security forces for their missions, meaning it is not known how much fuel has been lost, stolen, or diverted to the insurgency, according to a report released Monday by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, John F. Sopko.
That's nothing new:
"Senior Obama administration officials say some of [money] may be going to the Taliban, as part of a protection racket in which insurgents and local warlords are paid to allow the trucks unimpeded passage.... “willful blindness’’ on the part of a US military that “likes having its trucks showing up and doesn’t want to get into the details of how they got there.... US military officials say they are satisfied with the results.... regularly paying local warlords and the Taliban"
Related:
PAKISTAN TALIBAN ARMED WITH WEAPONS FROM USA, GERMANY AND INDIA
Good way to keep a war going, cui bono?
The report is the latest bad news surrounding a key element of the US exit strategy for Afghanistan.
Yeah, except we aren't really leaving.
Washington has spent billions on the international coalition’s effort to train and equip Afghan forces.
It's Vietnam and Iraq!
The new report comes on top of growing questions in recent weeks about how recruits are vetted for the Afghan forces — questions prompted by a spike in insider attacks in which Afghan soldiers, police, or impersonators have killed 45 international service members this year, mostly Americans.
The report also found:
■ An audit of the spending is being hampered because someone shredded financial records covering $475 million in fuel payments over more than four years and officials inexplicably could not provide complete records for a fifth year.
■ There is insufficient justification for increasing budget requests for fuel that have been made by the command managing NATO’s mission to equip and train Afghan forces.
■ Millions in the proposed funding should be cut until international forces figure out how many vehicles and generators the Afghan security forces are actually using and how much fuel is needed for those vehicles and for power plants.
And yet the government counts every social security, medical, and welfare penny.
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Related: Afghan bus, truck collision kills 51
Roadside bomb kills 19 Afghans
Afghans can't even go to a wedding or football game anymore.
"Afghan suicide attack kills 3, wounds 90" November 24, 2012
MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan — In a statement e-mailed to reporters, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for the execution of Taliban prisoners this week by the Afghan government.
First I've seen of those.
However, Wardak’s governor, Abdul Majid Khogyani, said he believed that his recent efforts to reconcile a number of Wardak’s villages with the government had angered the Taliban, who rely on rural support.
See: Taliban I Told You So
The bomb was so powerful that not only were windows blown out for blocks, but window and door frames close to the blast were warped and askew, some wrenched from their fittings.
Meaning the bomb was so powerful it almost had to be an intelligence agency false flag operation.
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